I Planted Chard Outside Today...

I did it.
I couldn't resist.
I went outside and planted a short row of my favorite variety of chard: Five Color Silverbeets. Now I can see which ones fare better: the ones I started inside yesterday afternoon, or the ones I just put into the ground.

Now I have dirt under my nails.

I'm a week early for the First Day of Spring, but I say....

Let Spring Begin!

Gardening On the Cheap

I recently came across the idea of using empty toilet paper tubes as containers when starting seeds.  Since I'm almost always looking to save a buck, I decided to give this a try. It was also a great idea, since I had an interview for the local paper on gardening and they wanted to do a photo-shoot of me outside planting in the garden....which after the rain, was way too muddy to work in.

All I did was save up a few toilet paper tubes and scrounged up a few containers from my recycle bin.

I cut the tubes in half and set them in the rinsed out (washed in hot water/bleach would probably have been better, but...) mushroom containers.

I then filled them with potting soil, planted a chard seed into each one and watered just a bit and added just a bit more soil to the ones that sunk in.

An aside: It irks my hubby that we live on a farm and I had him buy dirt. But I told him that all our dirt was way too wet outside, so I think he's ok with it now....

Once I got the little seeds watered, I set them on the base of the cake container and popped the lid on.  I put the whole shebang on the baker's rack in the sunporch.  I might bring them inside...we'll see.

Once the seeds sprout, I will prop the container open so that it's not too humid in there for them. I don't want them to get moldy and damp off if it's too moist in there.

Time will tell if this works well....Once the little plants are fairly substantial, I plan to put them in the corner of the garden that will hopefully be dry(er) in a month or so.

I think I might mosey on out there and stick some chard seeds in the saturated ground of the garden, just to see which ones fare better. It'll be like a race, right? :)

GF RECIPE: One-Pan Beef Stroganoff with Rice

During my hiatus from blogging, the idea of making beef stroganoff using rice (instead of noodles) was presented to me.  I found this idea intriguing and couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it myself! I have a recipe for One-Pan Beef Stroganoff that I have used for about 10 years (and don't remember the source, or I'd tell you), but due to the higher cost of GF noodles, I have avoided making it for the whole family.


So, I tried making my recipe using rice instead of noodles, and it was a hit! In fact, I think I like it with rice even better than with noodles!

Here's the recipe, with my substitutions:

GF One-Pan Beef Stroganoff with Rice

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion (I just chop a whole onion and throw it in)
1 clove of garlic, chopped


1 tsp salt
1 TB lemon juice (I used lime juice), optional
1 small can of sliced mushrooms
1/4 tsp pepper
1.5 cups brown rice
3-3 1/2 cups water or broth(more if you like your rice cooked longer)


2 TB parsley (I use about 2 tsp dry)
1 cup sour cream (I use Daisy brand--less fillers)


Brown meat, onion, and garlic.
Stir in remaining ingredients, except parsley and sour cream.
Cover and simmer 30-40 minutes, or until rice is done and most of the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally.
Add parsley and sour cream, stir well and heat through.
Serve!

I served with a salad/veggie tray. Next time, I may add a veggie of some sort to the pan. This fed our family of 5 for one meal (might have to double it as the kids grow!)

This is a good "pantry staples" recipe. :)
Pic to come when I make it again--kids were starving and I didn't get to take a pic! :)

I'm baaaaaack!

Apologies to my readers for my neglecting the blog. It seems that life on the homefront got very busy the last 4 weeks or so, with all of us being sick at one time or another (each kid missed about a week of school due to fever/illness....kind of cuts into my writing-the-blog thing) and with getting some work done on the house and things going a bit awry... I know it all happens for a reason, and in the meantime I am hoping and praying for life to settle down to some level of normalcy...whatever that is!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and let you know why I've not been around.

I hope to be posting more regularly soon!

Thanks for reading!

February 2012: Menu Plan

Here is my Menu Plan for the first two weeks of February or so. Much, but not all of it, is GF. The rest of the family eats "regular" bread items...but I sub GF ones for my portion.

Breakfasts: 

• We got a lot of bread products from "the cheap food store", and I put them in the freezer. The kids have been eating either a bread item (bagel, toasted bread, mini bagel or bagel thin) with a nut butter(some containing chocolate), or Oatmeal revolution! oatmeal, which we also got from the same store for fairly cheap.  The oatmeals are flavored, but not as processed as, say, the flavored Quaker oatmeal packets are.

• Fried Potatoes with a bit of onion and eggs cooked in at the end have been a hit lately

• Pancakes/waffles have been requested

• Hubby has a big bowl of oatmeal.

• I go with hot tea/raw honey/milk, and maybe a couple scrambled eggs or toasted Udi's bread with Almond Butter.

Lunches:

• Often/usually leftovers

• Sandwich made w/Udi's bread and Almond butter, or Hormel Naturals meat, or homemade tuna/chicken/turkey salad

• Soup--I can make a pot of soup early in the week for me to eat each day.
• Salad-greens and whatever else I scrounge up for protein (lunchmeat, leftover meat, cheese, beans, cottage cheese) and veggies, topped with EVOO, a sprinkling of italian or pizza seasoning, salt and pepper

Dinners:

• Ham sandwiches with apple slices on the side

• Tacos- Fish/Salmon? Hillbilly Housewife's? Pastured Ground Beef? Use corn tortillas for myself, regular for the family

• Homemade Pizza--Homemade non-gf pizza crust for the family, GF tortilla or Namaste Pizza Crust mix as a crust for me (made first to reduce cross-contamination risk)

• Ham&Beans and GF Cornbread

• Chicken (Teriyaki?), Veggies and Rice

• Hamburgers(use bread for buns), homemade coleslaw and raw veggie tray

• Box Macaroni & Cheese (I know, I know, but it's the request of my son and it's his birthday!) and ?

• Ground Beef or Turkey Enchiladas (make tortillas from Masa Mix to avoid extra fillers/additives/etc in regular corn tortillas, plus my Masa is from white corn and less likely to be GMO)
• Homemade burritos- using storebought tortillas and canned beans to make filling, mine will be tostada-style on a corn tortilla made crispy in the cast iron skillet
• Turkey Soup--turkey meat and broth and frozen veggies in freezer, rice shell noodles if desired

• Pork Loin and ???(Cauliflower and some sort of pasta, salad?)

Snacks:

• What's left of the junk food from last month: pudding cups, fruit roll-ups

• Popcorn (butter/salt or butter/nutritional yeast/salt)

• Kefir smoothies (read: Healthier Morning Orange Drink)

• Pretzels and cheese (haven't found a GF pretzel that I love though...they're all so starchy!)

• Apple slices and Cheese (my personal GF favorite)

• Molasses bars (more like cake, though) from the back of the Namaste bag

• Carrots sticks and homemade Hummus

• Yogurt(w/ or w/o frozen berries)

• Handful of nuts/seeds/dried fruit

• Homemade GF Chex Mix

• Nature Valley nut bars (GF)

• Cottage cheese, maybe with a canned fruit(apricots?)

So, looking at how I went over the last calendar month and what I have to work with so far this month, I suppose I didn't do too bad!  Maybe I was just ahead of myself. That's the way it works sometimes.

I do need to go to the store for a few things, namely milk, mayonnaise, apples and some fresh produce. 
(Can you believe we ran out of mayo the other day, yet I have 8 different kinds of mustard? Not saying how many JARS I have in the stash though, lol!)